Main menu

Earlier this week, Manny Pacquiao made headlines when he seemingly called out Floyd Mayweather Jr. This wasnâ€™t the first time one of them publicly called out the other, obviously, but there was something really genuine about Pacquiaoâ€™s words on this go-round. The way he poked at Mayweather, the requests he made â€“ they just seemed very legitimate.

With that in mindâ€¦

According to multiple reports, Pacquiao is close to finalizing a deal that would grant him a rematch againstTimothy Bradley. You will recall, the Filipino star fell to Bradley in 2012 â€“ a controversial defeat that most people blamed on faulty judging.

A few days ago, in an interview with Aquiles Zonio of inquirer.net, Pacquiao said that if Mayweather were a â€śreal man,â€ť he would agree to fight him. Moreover, he suggested that Mayweather should do it â€śnot the sake of money,â€ť but rather to â€śmake the boxing fans happy.â€ť

During the same session with Zonio, Pacquiao said that he was challenging Mayweather to â€śinclude in our fight contract that both of us will not receive anything out of this fight. We will donate all the proceeds from the fightâ€”guaranteed prize, should there be any, gate receipts, pay-per-view and endorsementsâ€”to charities around the world.â€ť

Thatâ€™s great. Really great. Or at least it would have been, had Pacquiao not seemingly greenlit Bradley as his next opponent.

Look, everyone knew that Bradley-Pacquiao II was going to happen. Outside of Mayweather-Pacquiao and Marquez-Pacquiao-V, this is the most commercially viable bout available. And since neither Mayweather nor Marquez seem interested in a match, this made the most sense. But the fact that he has apparently agreed to fight Bradley also sort of makes Pacquiaoâ€™s earlier comments to Mayweather seem disingenuous. Itâ€™s sort of like baseball players who pretend they want to fight when theyâ€™re actually being held back.

Pacquiao told Mayweather â€śletâ€™s fight and donate the proceeds to charity,â€ť all the while agreeing to take on Bradley at the same time.

If nothing else, this is just another example of the PR gamesmanship that constantly goes on between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Nothing is real. Itâ€™s all just a publicity play.